A mountainous district of Lao Cai province with marvellous natural scenery, Sapa is known as a summer haven. Its poetic and fanciful beauty has charmed many tourists. Cool climate, mountainous terrain and picturesque mist are valuable resources of Sapa to develop tourism.
It can be said that tourism has brought efficiency in shifting economic structure and helping alleviate poverty. Infrastructure serving tourism witnessed rapid growth. Mr Le Duc Luan, Chairman of People’s Committee in Sapa District, said there are 268 tourism enterprises with 2,228 rooms, in which 600 rooms ranked one star standard upward, increasing by 1.6 times compared with 2005. Many enterprises have accommodation services, high quality restaurants and affirm their brand names in the tourism market.
With its cultural and tourism programmes, Sapa has attracted many domestic and foreign visitors. In 2009, there were 405,000 tourists, earning VND 409 billion from tourism. The number of foreign tourists coming to Sapa grows quickly and consistently, with average growth of 18 % per year. Rapid tourism growth fosters a sharp increase in other services as well, the number of businesses in 2009 increased by 1.5 times compared with 2006, total sum of retail in this period grew by 27 % per year. Services and business enterprises have created jobs for 3,650 labourers, increasing 2.1 times against 2005.
These results show that tourism development has direct and decisive impacts on shifting economic structure, raising tourism in the district’s economic structure from 15 % in the 1990s to 58.7 % in 2009.
In the future, Sapa will continue to invest into places introducing and selling traditional handicrafts in central Ta Phin, Ta Van, Ban Ho communes, and resting and beauty spots in trekking routes from the town, which are built in the typical architectural style of local ethnic minorities. In addition to create selling places, Sapa will apply assisting policies to producing and trading traditional handicrafts. Identifying Bac Waterfall and ancient stone engraving places as potential tourism spots, District People’s Committee will invest to turn ancient stone engraving places into appealing cultural tourism spots, while ensuring the preservation of cultural heritages. Bac Waterfall will be planned to attract investment to become a satellite tourism spot.
In order to make Sapa an attractive destination of domestic and foreign tourists, beside the previous potential, activities fostering tourism human resources play an important role. Therefore, the District People’s Committee continues to prioritize training in the coming years with community training courses for Ban Den, Ban Ho and Sin Chai hamlets in San Sa Ho commune. According to the project’s plan, it continues to hold courses on tourism professions, mostly for tour guides and services, to increase professionalism in tourism. If these are well implemented, Sapa will continue to be a great destination for domestic and foreign tourists, said Mr Le Duc Luan.
P.V
Vietnamese
